This morning the Squidlings and I headed a few blocks uptown to fight the crowds at Madison Square Garden. We did this last year and practically walked right in to the show with barely a wait to buy tickets. Today, however, we made it to our seats with barely a minute to spare. This meant that we missed the pre-show but we'll survive.
Here is the sock taking in the sights. I was a bit fearful that I might finish the sock during the performance and then have nothing to work on but it turns out that the circus requires all of my attention most of the time so very little got done on the sock.
Clowns. Yup, we were up way high.
Elephants! As always, Little Squid's favorite part.Squidette decided that the human cannonballs were her favorite part. Hmmm ...
My favorite? The gymnasts, acrobats and trapeze artists. This tour is touted as a "Bellobration," celebrating the talents of the clown Bello. Turns out that he is a talented gymnast / acrobat as well. The courage and skill that these folks have is amazing to watch. (Read the article attached to the link. It is written by my absolute favorite clown!)
What didn't I like? The animal stuff -- except for the part where one elephant relieved herself while performing. I found it absolutely hilarious that she was dumping what seemed to be gallons of liquid and pounds of semi-solids while half perched on a stool. I found the tiger show to be somewhat cruel and the dog act to be silly. But then I'm an adult and these things are not aimed at us. After last year's show I had figured that big animal acts, aside from the elephants, were out of fashion but I see that I was sadly mistaken. Poor tigers.
Apparently Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey run an elephant sanctuary where they care for and breed Asian Elephants. I think I can deal with that. More research is necessary though, but since my first negative hit was from PETA, I'll keep looking.
Will we go back next year? Maybe.
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